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Fresno
Bee
November
16, 2006
The
San Joaquin Valley trails much of the state in charitable
foundation giving, according to a new study that re-veals
large donation gaps between coastal and inland California.
The
Valley -- which has some of the poorest communities in the
state -- is severely underserved, receiving just $16 per capita
in foundation donations, according to the findings of a study
made public Wednesday by the James Irvine Foundation, one
of the largest foundations in the state.
"You
basically have a population that is growing, and yet there
is not the philanthropic capacity to meet the grow-ing needs,"
said Kris Putnam of Putnam Community Investment Consulting,
which prepared the report for the founda-tion.
The
study, based on 2003 tax data, gives a comprehensive look
at private and community-based giving across the state and
shows that inland California lags the rest of the state by
wide margins.
The
Bay Area led all regions with 1,020 foundations and $250 in
per capita giving, which is almost 16 times the amount distributed
in both the San Joaquin Valley and the Inland Empire, the
two fastest-growing regions of the state.
James
E. Canales, president and CEO of the Irvine foundation, said
coastal regions have a tradition of giving not found in the
state's inland regions. If the trend continues, he warned,
inland California will lack the social services and arts and
cultural amenities demanded by its changing and growing population.
"It's
our view that in many respects that the future of our state
is going to depend in some measure in how we ac-commodate
and plan for the growth that we're seeing in these regions,"
he said.
As
the study points out, the Central Valley population has increased
from 4 million in 1980 to 5.7 million in 2000, and is projected
to grow to 11.7 million by 2040. Yet nearly 90% of the state's
total foundation assets are based in the Bay Area and Los
Angeles.
The
San Joaquin Valley, stretching from San Joaquin County to
Kern County, is home to only four community foundations and
70 private foundations. Per capita giving in 2003 ranged from
a paltry $3 per capita in Madera County to $22 in Kings County,
which ranked 30th in the state. Fresno County's giving was
$20 per capita and Tulare County's was $5.
Daniel
DeSantis, CEO of the Fresno Regional Foundation, said there
is plenty of wealth in the region. It's just that residents
"don't really understand the nature of philanthropy."
For
instance, residents have traditionally given directly to charities,
instead of foundations, he said. Because of that, he said,
foundations have not been able to build up endowments. That
means community foundations, which tend to give away money
locally, have less interest income, and as a result make fewer
donations.
But
DeSantis doesn't blame residents. Instead, he says the 40-year-old
Fresno Regional Foundation has failed in its job of bringing
awareness to philanthropy.
"The
foundation in the last 10 years somehow just went to sleep,"
he said.
DeSantis,
who was hired a year and a half ago, said the organization
is turning things around. It is reaching out to the community,
he said, and has named more high-profile business people to
its board. Recently named members in-clude James Hallowell,
who successfully ran Hallowell Chevrolet for 31 years, and
John Horstmann, owner of an insur-ance services company.
The
foundation was established in 1966 to improve the quality
of life in the Valley through philanthropy. Discre-tionary
giving -- donations distributed based on board decisions --
has jumped from $150,000 last year to $2 million this year,
thanks to some big donations, DeSantis said.
"We've
woken up in the last couple of years," he said.
But
there's still a huge gap to close. With about $12 million
in assets, the foundation is the largest community foun-dation
in the San Joaquin Valley. But statewide, it ranks as the
19th largest community foundation based on assets, ac-cording
to the Irvine study. The top community foundation, Marin Community
Foundation in the Bay Area, has more than $1 billion in assets.
The
goal of the report is to bring attention to the disparity
in giving across the state, Canales said.
The
Irvine foundation -- a private organization with more than
$1.5 billion in assets -- has stepped up its grant mak-ing
to inland regions.
In
the past five years it has invested more than $85 million
in the Central Valley and Inland Empire.
"What
we're hoping to do," Canales said, "is to stimulate the same
kind of pattern in inland California [as in coastal communities],
where people see the importance of investing in their communities."
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